"THEY started shooting into the Garda car through the windows where the two plainclothes men were in the front seat.
"One of the gang first fired into the driver's position, and one of the three ran around and fired through the other window, hitting the passenger. They didn't give them a chance, a caution or shag all."
That was how Mr Willie Jackson (46), of Woodlawn Park, Ballysimon, Co Limerick, driver of the 15 tonne rigid bodied An Post special delivery service truck described the scene shortly after one garda was shot dead and another seriously injured.
They had provided an escort for his vehicle, which had made a stop at Adare Post Office as it was distributing about £100,000 in pension and social security money to West Limerick post offices as far as Abbeyfeale.
Mr Jackson, who has been 30 years in the postal services, said: "I pulled up at 6.55 a.m. and was just starting to unload the mail when a Pajero jeep style vehicle came up and rammed the Garda car at the back.
"I heard a bang and looked out to see three men wearing balaclavas and army fatigue dress jump out of the Pajero and instantly start shooting into the Garda car.
Mr Jackson said he jumped off the truck without even lowering the platform. "Simultaneously I put up my hands, for I thought they were going to shoot me next. It was a real wild scene with bullets all over the place. I recognised the guns as Kalashnikov rifles.
"They didn't ask for money or look for it, but ran past the truck and got into a silver coloured Toyota Corolla style car and made off. It would appear to me that one of the men panicked and fired at the guards." He believed the man in the silver coloured car called them and they took off.
Mr Jackson said he knew both of the gardai well. "I could see that the man in the passenger seat, Jerry McCabe, was motionless and appeared to be dead. Ben O'Sullivan, the driver, was moving.
Mr Jackson dashed into the post office and got a belt, which he used as a tourniquet to try and stop the bleeding. He said Garda O'Sullivan seemed to be in great agony as he was put into the ambulance.
Another An Post truck took over the mail while gardai cordoned off the scene. They covered the ramming vehicle and the Garda car with the body of the dead officer inside with black plastic sheeting until Dr Margaret Bolster, the assistant State Pathologist, arrived on the scene at 1.35 p.m.